The Matchroom PR Dept Tony Hayers has been despatched to the forum to deal with the current Matchroom crisis with allegations of bent judges and cards. 400 Tyson Fury threads will be bumped during the night to hide this news
Smith won the last round. Boxed beautifully for 2 mins of it. Ryder won the other 1 minute but overall definitely it was a Smith round.
I've seen some people elsewhere claiming that it the fight was "difficult to score" because not much clean was landing. If that's the case, Ryder should be winning the vast majority of the difficult to score rounds, as he controlled the action in nearly every round, dictated the pace, and was clearly the aggressor. The only way Smith wins that fight is with clean scoring punches - ie he was landing the cleaner punches in a way that was not obvious watching it on TV. That's possible I suppose, but based on what we could see on the screen that was one of the worst decisions of the year.
The question on my lips is now only this, what next for Ryder? This was his big chance and he took it with both hands, I really feel for him, he could and should be a World Champion looking ahead to some potentially huge fights, instead he's probably staring at a few lower level, a lot less paid fights for the next 18 months. He'll be 33 by then.
Ryder was landing clean all night and battered the body. Smith seemed to miss with everything he threw. It's a horrible sport boxing. It really is. But I love it.
The most worrying part is that Smith's punches had little effect on Ryder and he was so easy to bully and hit. Could easily see a motivated Eubanks Jnr in there teeing off on Smith or Billy Joe Saunders playing with Smith for 12 rounds. Forget Canelo or any elite fighter.
Ryder won, controlled the ring. 70ish% of the fight was fought how John wanted it to be fought. Gutted. Robbed, and I lost a tenner.
Hearn is very much Team Sims, married into the family. It was a very close fight I think because Ryder was the big betting underdog people are favouring him in many of the close rounds. Dont get me wrong Ryder was terrific and the odds were a joke, John Ryder is a quality SMW.
No mate. He is corrupt. Not incompetent. Leave that horrible word for the Steve Bunce's of the world.
Yep, that's how I saw it. Ryder didn't seem to get any credit for his work to the body, or for much else really.
Ryder has good footwork, were as Eubank doesn't so he would get splattered. Weirdly enough more chance of Smith getting a superfight now, as that's how it seems to be in boxing.
